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5 Steps to Large Scale Change

By Royale on March 14, 2012 in Personal Growth, Purpose

I’m branching out a bit from my usual content to share an issue that grabbed my attention and I somehow felt compelled to share. Most of us have become aware of the “Kony Video,” and the surrounding controversy. The question is what if anything, do we do about it? Over the weekend my 19-year-old daughter, who is away at college, asked me what I thought about the situation. This stirred me to look and think. If this has gotten the attention of our youth, then it is deserving of ours.

My Response

“My take is both good and bad. Anything that brings awareness to atrocities in the world is a good thing and kudos to this group for getting our younger generation involved in concerns of our world. Apathy is our greatest threat and they are trying to change that. That’s very positive.

The bad… This issue is not as simple as presented. There’s a lot more to the story. The situation is evolving. What is the role of the government of Uganda? How are the donations being spent? Why does this deserve more attention than larger scale atrocities? Is military action the best solution? Should we be trying to fix the world when we have horrible problems at home? When is it ok to spend our money, use our influence, and risk our soldiers? Lots to consider…

So, what do I think? The best thing you and your friends can do is to become knowledgeable about all of the atrocities taking place throughout our world and what is currently being done about them? Also, get informed about our own problems, the number of homeless, hungry, the violence, damage we are doing to the earth and how we are spending our money. Remember that media is often propaganda; good or bad…Do your own research and form your own opinions.

I’m pleased and proud of you and your friends for paying attention to something larger than yourselves. It’s the only thing that will save our future.”

In case you haven’t been following the situation, you can watch the “Kony Video” on YouTube. The Huffington Post has some articles discussing the larger controversy, but there are many others out there.

As I told my daughter, I believe apathy is our greatest threat. We have the power to affect change, but how do we use that power effectively? Moreover, how can we teach our younger generation to do the same?

What We Can Do

1. Pay Attention – Be aware of what’s going on around the world and in our own back yard. Nothing can be done until we first get informed about the issues that plague us.

2. Choose What Speaks to You – What pulls at you? Where do you feel the most compelled to take action? We are most effective and have the most impact when we focus on things that illicit the most passionate repose.

3. Do Your Research – Gather information about all sides of an issue. What is the situation? What has occurred in the past? What is being done now? What are the proposed solutions? Pros and Cons.

4. Form Your Own Opinions – Nearly all forms of media present a slanted point of view. It’s nearly impossible to be completely objective and neutral, even for news outlets. Perceptions and beliefs do impact the way information is presented. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as we are aware of it. Use your research to form your own conclusions, instead of simply adopting the conclusions of others.

5. Take Action – There are many effective ways to take action and affect change.

Spread the word, shine a light on the issues, and share your concerns with others.

Give money and/or time to a cause.

Use your political power; vote or contact your politicians.

Utilize the power of the pocketbook; when money talks, people listen.

Food for Thought

What if career and financial success, health and fitness, beauty, happiness, balance, stable marriages, good parenting, or spiritual connection are not the purpose of life, but merely paths?

What if the purpose, our legacy, is in fact, to use an old cliché, “To make the world a better place for those who come after us?” What would we do differently?

Are we being naïve in thinking we can make a difference?

No, I don’t think so. We can’t fix the entire world’s problems overnight, but we can each have a small impact, which when combined add up to huge changes.

Your turn. Share your thoughts and comments.

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7 Types Of Effective Communication And Why You Need To Know Them

By Royale on February 1, 2012 in Personal Growth, Relationships, Work

It’s not enough to know whom you are talking to, communicate, influence, and in the case of our children perhaps teach. If you want to be effective in your communication, you need to understand the best way to reach them. This has been proven time and time again.

This is the key to success, better relationships, and higher productivity at work. In fact, this strategy has been shown to lower stress by minimizing conflict and encourage camaraderie and teamwork, whether personal or professional.

Roosevelt and Churchill in conversation (Zorba the Geek) / CC BY-SA 2.0

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a customer, client, child, spouse, co-worker, or members of a board or committee. You must connect in the manner that resonates with them. It sounds difficult, but it really isn’t once you start practicing it.

Types of communication:

Informing – Some people just want the facts laid out for them. They pay attention to facts and figures, studies and other concrete data.

Analyzing – These people don’t want specific facts, but rather a summary. You need to offer an analysis and boil down the information or request in a meaningful matter.

Persuasive – This type of person wants to know what’s in it for them. Why should they agree to act in a certain way or perform a specific action? They must be convinced. Present your argument.

Mediating – Compromise, compromise. With these people, you have to be willing to give a little. They need to feel heard and respected. Find the common ground and find the solution that satisfies you both.

Emotional – This kind of communication is all about feelings. Knowing what is important and what touches these people is the key. Appeal to their emotions and connect on a compassionate and understanding level.

Entertaining – Wit, humor and levity influences these people. Serious facts are useless, be interesting and lighthearted when possible.

Inspiring – Offer motivation, inspiration, and big picture results. These people need to feel as though they are making a difference, some kind of impact.

The way to practice communication that is more effective requires that you improve your observation and listening skills. Pay attention to the people around you and be more interested in general. We could all use a little more of that.

What type of communicator are you? It helps to understand that too.

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The One Thing You Must Do to Gain Control of Your Inbox

By Royale on December 19, 2011 in Productivity, Technology, To-Do, Work

Image via Wikipedia

Simple Steps

Do you cringe when you open your email? How could you possibly have 42 new emails overnight you ask?

If you’re lucky they’re spam (that’s easy to take care of with a good spam filter,) but usually they’re not. Many of those messages are announcements, updates, sales or some other form of mailing list torture that you’ve somehow gotten yourself into; social media updates, group messages, retail ads, community, news or parenting digests, the list of our informational interests is endless.

You may have thought it seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course you don’t want to miss out on a good sale. You have to keep up with the latest news and industry updates. You never know when you’re going to receive a fabulous new recipe or tip that will change your life. But now, the informational deluge is overwhelming. You cannot conceivably read every one of those emails if you ever want to get anything else done. They must be multiplying while you sleep…

You could just delete them. That’s probably what you have been doing, isn’t it? How’s that working?

Great for a few moments, but they just keep coming back, stalking you like that weird kid in 7^th grade who wanted to walk home with you every day…but gave you the creeps. You just knew eventually you were going to have to tell him to leave you alone. Right? Or did you just try dodging him, ducking over to another street or walking fast so that he maybe couldn’t keep up? That’s just sad…

Well the same thing happens in your inbox. You can run, you can hide, but you will never get away from the unwanted stalker emails unless you take a firm proactive action.

Wait! It’s easier than it sounds.

Unsubscribe. Yep, that’s it. That’s all you have to do.

Look for the link at the bottom of the email. You may have to log in and change your email preferences or settings, especially if it’s a group or membership.

But that takes time. Stop whining and just do it. A few minutes now will save you minute after minute, week after week after week. Those minutes add up to many hours of your valuable time wasted.

I started doing just a few unsubscribes each day for a week or two. It took maybe 10 minutes at most. The funny thing is it would have taken me at least that amount of time to sift through them to get to the important emails. And after a couple of weeks my inbox was so light, I could see white space around the edges.

Try it for a week and see if you don’t notice a difference.

*If you can’t possibly live without some of these updates, use your email program to create a filter for updates or sort them into a separate folder for later review. Pay attention to which ones you actually read on a regular basis and unsubscribe from the rest.

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5 Lessons Veterans Can Teach Us About Life and Business

By Royale on November 11, 2011 in Lessons, Personal Growth, Work

Rather than just celebrating another day off from school, and for many of us work, maybe we should take a look at what we can learn from those brave men and women we celebrate on Veteran’s Day.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts – When you work together as a team, the results you achieve can be far greater and more productive than anything an individual can accomplish. Enlist help and collaborate as a team when possible.

Do it even if you don’t feel like it – Some days we don’t feel like making calls, writing proposals, cleaning up the kitchen or getting up and driving to work. So what! Don’t even think about whether or not you “feel” like doing something. Just move on to the next item and complete it.

Keep your eye on the big and the little picture – Advice abounds, “think about the big picture” or “just focus on what’s in front of you,” but the reality is…you need to pay attention to both. Place your attention on doing what’s in front of you and pay attention to the details, but also keep in mind the overall goal and what you’re trying to achieve.

Be clear on what you’re trying to accomplish – You need to be very clear on what you’re trying to do and why. What is it that you want out of your life, your business or career and what specifically is the desired outcome for each project or goal. You can’t get where you want to go if you don’t have a destination in mind.

Plan, but be flexible – Plan your actions, decide what you’ll do, how and when, but also be prepared to deviate if necessary. It’s often not possible to plan for every contingency, so when things shift or schedules change be willing to be flexible and regroup.

Can you think of anything I’ve left off? Have you learned a valuable lesson from a veteran that you’d like to share?

Question everything, move forward, enjoy the journey.

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Save Time and Space – Go Digital

By Royale on October 3, 2011 in Organization, To-Do, Work

Simple Steps

Go digital!

Save your documents in electronic format whenever possible.

Then scan everything in paper format onto your computer that you really need or want to save.

Save either locally on your hard drive, in the “cloud” or on a back-up storage.

Minimize the storage of papers as much as possible.

Opt for electronic statements and invoices whenever you can.

Set aside time – or ask an assistant if you are lucky enough to have one – to scan in old documents and agreements.

The result – You will free up enormous paper file storage space and make retrieval and sharing so much simpler.

Question everything, move forward, enjoy the journey.

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New eBook – “Keys to Your most Productive Life” Will

By Royale on September 7, 2011 in Goals, Productivity, Technology

I’ve just released my first ebook!

Keys to Your Most Productive Life is a brief, but valuable guide packed full of tips that will help you - Learn how to maximize your time and energy to live the most productive life possible!

Figure it out, Clean it up, Get it done

Do you never seem to have enough hours in the day?

Are you buried under piles?

Do you get to the end of the day and ask where did my time go?

Are you perpetually running behind?

Do you have projects, dreams or goals that you never manage to get to?

Do you feel that how you spend your time is out of sync with your life and work values?

It doesn’t have to be that way! Change is possible…

An invaluable guide at an affordable price – $4.99

If what you’re currently doing isn’t working or maybe you’d just like it to work even better, then this short, but value-packed ebook will offer some simple steps to maximize your productivity, increase your effectiveness and get clear about what you really want. We all know the old adage; the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Clearly most of us are not insane, but for some reason we think this rule doesn’t apply to us. If we can just work faster, harder and be more determined we can whip ourselves in to shape.That’s just not reality.

Keys to Your Most Productive Life will help jump-start your productivity and guide you toward your most productive life… higher efficiency, organization, clarity, focus, success. This ebook will both the nudge in the right direction and the guide on how to get there!

Buy the ebook for only $4.99 now! And get started living a more productive life!

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Information Diet Challenge

By Royale on May 9, 2011 in Personal Growth, Work

Weekly challenege:

The productivity challenge for this week is to trim your information feeds; Twitter feeds, RSS feeds, daily blogs, news feeds, etc. If you’re like me, then you can all too easily get sucked into the information vortex by either incessant curiosity or the voracious need to know feeling that fears you might miss something important!

You can only process a certain amount of information and then your brain goes on overload and your retention rate is dismal. You will be much more informed and decrease your time wasted in the “black hole” of information if you prune your information sources with a discerning eye.

Over the next week, go through your daily information routine as you normally would, but each time you are checking the news, reading your RSS feeds, daily blogs or scrolling your Twitter feed ask yourself the following question:

Does this information add some kind of value to my life?

Does it add to my knowledge base and is that knowledge useful to me?
Does it teach or improve a useful talent or skill? (I.e. productivity!)
Does it make me laugh or uplift my spirits in some way?

If the information source does not meet one of these criteria, then it is very simply not worth your time. Now, for the hardest part; discard the duplicates. Choose the two or three best sources in each area; news, industry reviews, social media, technology, finance, personal development or whatever your particular areas of interest might be. Start trimming!

My task will be to trim the Twitter feeds I am following to a manageable level and cut my RSS feeds by 50%. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Please share your goals for this week’s challenge and let us know how you are doing

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Productive Email Strategies: Part 2 – “One-Way” Communications

By Royale on April 13, 2011 in Technology

I realize that for many, the issue of inbox overwhelm is very much about “one way communications.” Newsletters, sales and marketing, jokes, videos to watch, feeds, updates on varied interests and projects can make up a large portion of email piling up in your email daily.

While these communications may often be necessary, sometimes even desired, they can all just get to be too much. They can completely take-over your inbox and completely overwhelm even the most organized and efficient among us.

There are some simple steps we can take to combat this insidious dribble of incoming information. Simple yes; easy no. We humans are wired to seek information. We want to stay informed, in the loop, knowledgeable. We hate not knowing everything that’s going on around us. We might even go so far as to say that our insatiable curiosity has turned into an information addiction. Though many of us are still in denial about that…

What you can try to trim the incoming flood:

Chill with the newsletters. Really. Only subscribe if the information is truly valuable to you in some way. If you find yourself skimming or deleting without even reading, it’s time to unsubscribe.
Use an RSS reader. Instead of signing up for daily or weekly emails, subscribe to the sites RSS feed and use Google Reader or something similar to store and manage your information. Get it out of your inbox!
Be very selective when sending jokes, chain emails, video links, photos and that sort of thing. For the most part that kind of stuff is more appropriate to post on Facebook usually. Everyone loves a cute pet or a good laugh; once in a while is fine, but not on a regular basis.
Opt out of those sales alerts. If you need to buy something you can search the internet for sales or discounts. If you don’t need it then you shouldn’t be wasting time getting alerts about it. It is a waste of your valuable time and inbox space and will probably save you money too!
Likewise, opt out of those marketing emails. Nearly every time you sign up on some website and give out your email you are going to be placed on a mailing list. Unless you are waiting for some specific information from the website uncheck that box during the sign-up process. If there wasn’t an option or you missed it, opt out or unsubscribe as soon as the marketing emails start showing up.
Get it in digest format if possible. Instead of getting a notification every time someone posts on your LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook profile of conversation, opt for a daily digest. Another option is to use and inbox filter to divert them to a separate folder, get text alerts or turn off the notifications totally. You can always log in daily to look.

There are so many strategies we can employ to weed out and trim down our email volume. With a little diligence we can move closer to an efficient, streamlined inbox that is a useful tool to share valuable information. Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be for anyway?

If you missed Productive Email Strategies: Part 1 – Effective Communication, I highly recommend you go back and read it. The most effective approach to a manageable inbox is streamlining what goes out as well as what comes in.

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Productive Email Strategies: Part 1 – Effective Communication

By Royale on April 11, 2011 in Technology, Time, Work

Most business professionals I know acknowledge that email is the biggest obstacle to overcome in their daily routine. A necessary and oft times indispensable tool; it can also be a huge detour that easily leads you off the path in your quest for productivity.

In thinking about how to minimize this stumbling block, (we really can’t remove it, but we can “manage” it) I realized that much of our email volume is made up of repeat requests, follow-up emails and “reply-all” updates. I came up with a few simple strategies that help me (when I actually use them) and might help you too.

Email communication strategies:

Be concise.
Communicate “action steps” first, not last.
Number your questions if you must have more than one.
Be clear about what you want.
Include deadlines.
Use “FYI” for emails that have no actionable information.
Don’t send “Thanks!” emails.
If you can’t respond or carry out the request fully now, acknowledge and tell them when you can do it.
Use “reply all” judiciously.

You may not always be able to achieve the elusive “inbox 0,” but anything you can do to reduce unnecessary email will save you time and inbox clutter.

I realize that for many, the issue of inbox overwhelm is also about “one way communications.” Newsletters, sales and marketing, jokes, videos to watch, updates on varied interests and projects can make up a large portion of email piling up in your email daily. We’ll discuss some strategies for that in Part 2 – “One-Way Communication”…

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How to Keep Your Printed Documents Organized

By Royale on October 19, 2010 in Uncategorized

Today’s post is a guest post contributed by James Adams, a technology and productivity blogger.

For those who work in a busy office, time-management is one of the most important things one can learn. After all, not being able to manage time effectively can lead to serious issues within an office, from missing meetings to just simply not getting enough work done in a day’s time.

One of the basic tenants of time management is organization. Learning how to organize one’s workstation is crucially important to getting a lot of work done throughout a day, and perhaps the most important aspect of this is keeping one’s printed documents organized at all times. While many people have immense problems learning how to organize their documents correctly, the fact is that once one learns just a few basic strategies, organization practically falls into place and can make the day far more productive.

Here are five great ways to get your documents organized, reduce clutter and be efficient and ultimately feel happier at work.

1. Set Up Your Office Strategically

One of the biggest hurdles for those who struggle with organization is directly related to the setup of the office. While most offices try to keep printers and copiers central to each workstation, others feel as if the dark corner at the back of the office is the best place to put their machines. This inevitably leads to issues, as employees don’t want to have to trek to the back of the building to pick up their printouts every ten minutes. By centralizing your copiers and printers, you’ll be making the situation far easier on your employees, and will ultimately be helping to improve organization throughout the office.

2. Keep Employees on the Same Track

Many offices fall prey to employees that print out documents, only to leave them sitting in the printer for half of the day before they pick them up. This is by far one of the worst organizational caveats, as it is close to impossible to stay organized when random printouts are hogging up the printer. By making it clear to your employees that this is not okay, you can minimize the potential for backup that might be affecting your office.

3. Only print what is Needed

Another issue that plagues many offices throughout the world is the employee that prints out absolutely everything – even emails! The fact is printing out every document that graces the computer screen is simply unnecessary. Not only does it lead to disorganization, it is frankly a huge waste of paper, ink and resources. By having a dialogue with your employees and stating that only necessary documents should be printed, you can put a halt on this issue before it gets out of hand. The more one is allowed to print anything they want, the worse the situation will get.

4. Reduce Stacks

Many people allow piles upon piles of printed documents to take ownership of their workstations, concluding that dealing with them at the end of the week is the best way to go about things. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, and often results in lost time and heavy disorganization. Instead of waiting until the end of the week to deal with stacks, make an effort to not allow them to accumulate at all. If you must use stacks (as this is simply how some people operate), be sure to deal with them before leaving work at the end of each day; otherwise, you’re bound to lose track of important documents.

5. Create a Filing System

One of the most important things you can do to prevent being disorganized is to create an extremely versatile filing system. Just as you wouldn’t place hundreds of documents on your computer’s desktop, you shouldn’t do so with your paper documents. By filing away your documents as soon as you are finished dealing with them, you’ll know exactly where everything is and will not have to deal with piles of random printouts. This is imperative for those who find that they often have to refer back to their documents at a later date, and is a crucial detail that should be learned early on in any career.

James Adams reviews ink supplies at Cartridge Save. He also writes for blogs around the web where he posts about the technology and productivity.

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